Airlines lobby against Obama administration tax hikes

The airline industry is lobbying hard against an Obama administration proposal to decrease the federal deficit with tax hikes on air travel, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"The airline industry is an easy target," Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Air Lines Inc., said in an interview with the Journal. "Perhaps there's a sense in Washington that wealthy people fly. But over the past 20 to 30 years, flying in the U.S. has been a very middle-class activity."

Delta, which began serving Salt Lake City in 1980, operates more service from the city than any other airline with more than 250 peak-day departures, according to the company.

A September plan by the Obama administration to trim the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years includes additional taxes in an effort to spread out the burden of flight costs.

An airline flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco would generate $1,300 to $2,000 in taxes, depending on the number of passengers and what they paid for tickets. A private jet, which requires almost the same services from air-traffic controllers, would pay about $60 in fuel taxes, the plan said, according to Bloomberg.

The administration's plan includes a $100 departure tax and a security surcharge.

The $100 tax would be on each flight departure, including corporate jets and general-aviation aircraft that need federal air-traffic-control services, reported the Journal. The proposal includes a doubling of the federal security surcharge of $2.50 per one-way trip to $5. Annual increases would triple the fee to $7.50 by 2017.

The airline industry’s lobbying groups warn of job cuts and reduced service if the new aviation and security taxes are approved.

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, said in a statement that nearly 10,000 airline industry jobs could be cut within one year if both taxes are approved. Additionally, nearly 181,000 jobs could be lost across the economy related to reductions in aircraft manufacturing, airports and supporting businesses, according to a new study.

The Regional Airline Association, the trade group that represents commuter carriers that fly on behalf of the major airlines, including St. George-based SkyWest Airlines, is also opposed to the tax hike.